


a hollow end

by gaytimetraveller



Category: Persona 2
Genre: Angst, F/F, im so sorry lads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 13:43:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11186319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaytimetraveller/pseuds/gaytimetraveller
Summary: There were a lot of times when Yukino brought Maya home, sometimes late, sometimes bruised, sometimes passed out, and it worried Ulala sick. It worried her that Maya was caught up in some thing she could never help. She could only sit by the sidelines, to watch and wait and hope for the best.





	a hollow end

**Author's Note:**

> heres some angst im crying

There’d been a lot of times before, when Yukino had brought Maya home late, still beaten and bruised even after a visit to Satomi Tadashi, or, a few times, knocked out from a fight. It made Ulala worried sick. She knew the unspoken truth, that before whatever kind of healing she’d had, before a visit to Satomi Tadashi, she’d had worse. She’d had broken bones or, as Ulala knew from the last time she’d done the laundry from the tears in her clothes, some kind of gun wounds. Yukino was pretty banged up sometimes too, but she maintained that she was okay, that Maya was okay. Sometimes, from the amount of shit they lived through, Ulala wondered if they could die.

When Maya came home knocked out was the worst. Ulala held her hand tight while Yukino said she’d done it to help the others and rubbed some kind of cream on her cuts and scrapes and bruises. Sometimes, on those nights, some of the other kids were with her, faces full of worry, or guilt, and Ulala felt bad for them; she began to understand why Maya tried so hard to carry their burdens for them. On those nights, Ulala never left Maya alone until she woke up.

No matter how sore she might’ve been, Maya was always up again in the morning, maybe not early but she was up and pulling on her boots for another day. After what had happened at Caracol, Ulala could only worry more. She knew damn well Maya wasn’t going to work, she was going off somewhere to try to save the world, marching off every morning with a smile on her face and trudging back more black and blue than she’d been before. Even if she slept in every day she only seemed to be getting more tired.

Then, one day Maya asked Ulala where she’d put their extra box of bottled water, sheepishly smiled and told her she wasn’t going to be coming back that night, maybe a few nights. Ulala frowned, but she didn’t argue. She couldn’t argue, this was important, there wasn’t really a choice at all.

The first night, Ulala couldn’t sleep, couldn’t sleep in her own bed, fell off the couch, ended up bolting up from nightmares on Maya’s bed. The second night, Yukino came to visit, to check on her, and she didn’t leave. Yukino stayed overnight, stayed up with Ulala, looked out at the stars on the deck with her, made tea and heated up soup. It was nice to feel a bit less lonely, but the apartment still felt a bit empty.

A few days later Maya was back, but she didn’t stay long. She said it was almost over, and she looked strung out. Yukino put an arm around her shoulders and told her that she was sure they could do it, and Maya sighed. Things had been rough, of course things had been rough. Ulala made them all tea, Maya fell asleep with her cup in her hands.

The next time Maya left, she hugged Ulala at the door, promised everything would be better when she came back. She kissed Ulala on the forehead and there was a strange finality. Ulala’s eyes stung after she left, but she didn’t cry, not quite. This time, Yukino stayed from the beginning. Sometimes Anna Yoshizaka would show up, and they’d go out, off being vigilantes somewhere in the city. Ulala wondered if it was worth it trying to stop the chaos, if it really made any difference. She hoped it did.

A couple of days in, Yukino left for a few hours. Ulala was fruitlessly trying to tidy up Maya’s room, really more of just sitting on her bed and staring at the mess. For half a moment, she could’ve sworn she saw something flash outside the window, and she felt a bit faint. It felt like the air had changed, like a tension had been dispelled, but not in a good way. It felt like something was missing, like something had been taken.

Hours later, Yukino showed up at the door again, and she looked more exhausted than Maya ever had. She looked like she’d been crying. Anna trailed behind her, Anna looked cold and half dead, Ulala just wanted to offer her a hot drink and a warm bowl of soup. Maybe both of them needed that, they seemed to be in quite the state. Maybe she needed that too. She felt a bit terrible and she had no idea why.

“Did something happen?” Ulala’s voice was hoarser than she’d thought. She felt dreadful, she could feel the dread in the pit of her stomach. She felt like her heart was suddenly going far too fast in her chest, she felt twisted inside. Somehow everything felt aimless, hopeless, and hollow.

“Not to us,” Anna whispered, flat.

“Is Maya okay? Are, are the kids okay? Are they back yet?” her voice nearly cracked.

Neither Yukino nor Anna could look her in the eyes. Yukino stuck her hands in her pockets, and she looked defeated, it didn’t feel like a side of her that should be seen.

“Maya’s…” Anna trailed off, and she looked towards Yukino, who only stared at the floor. She couldn’t even look past Ulala’s shoulder.

“Maya’s, Maya’s not coming home,”

Ulala’s stomach dropped, everything dropped. Yukino reached forward half a second too late to catch Ulala when her legs buckled. She tried to crouch down, to help her up, but Ulala hugged her knees with an iron grip, and she shook. Yukino didn’t know what to say, she didn’t have anything to say, there wasn’t really anything to say. Anna could only blankly watch.

“Did she fix it?” Ulala asked, quiet, voice shaking heavily.

Yukino could only shake her head. Anna blinked back tears and pulled a sleeve up over her hand, lifting it to her face. Ulala took the silence as a no. Yukino’s voice was rough and low when she tried to speak.

“It’s all over. I’m sorry.”

Ulala finally broke and started to cry.


End file.
